VISITING WORKSHOPS

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

The current Mr Hens Teeth and I, visited Lucy (our eldest) in London today, just for a flyer! Big squeezy hug and we jumped straight onto a bus to Liberty. Is there a finer store anywhere???

Here are my poor little snaps of the day, they certainly do not do Liberty justice...

drooooooool....

Round the corner to Carnaby Street and a few shop windows....

Long, long queue to get in for a coffee here, can't imagine why ;-) centralperk We didn't, too much to do, in too little time.

Finally, I hope you don't think I'm being mean here girls, but the reality is, it's on it's way....... this was 4th floor at Liberty, verrrrrrrry pretty. Could have spent a fortune on some of the most exquisite Chr...... (oops nearly said it then) ornaments :-)

Sunday, 13 September 2009

Sarah-jane guessed correctly, Coldplay it was..."and we live in a beautiful world" and yes we certainly do. We have been enjoying blue skies and actual sunshine, the feel of Autumn in the air and morning mist, happy days.When one visited France last weekend, as one does, one managed to buy this 1950 children's book by the great Mary Blair. The illustration, oh the illustration!!!!...14 pages, 28 sides of iconic, wonderful retro art work.

Also for sale on my Ebay is this very tatty French photo album filled with no less than ninety vintage, loose photographs. No kind of theme to the photos, just random people, children, families, soldiers, dating back, I should think, to Edwardian times upto the 40's.

Very interesting and wonderful for mixed media makers.

I have added a couple of more items to my folksy shop. Lovely long, long length of French cotton trim, which is still attached to it's original paper. The paper and a small portion of the trim, is slightly decayed and rather gorgeous.Talking of something gorgeous, I have also added a large, pillow case with four M o P buttons ...musty, worn linen and darned! Floats my boat!

Can you make out the hand darning below? Sublime.

Well, I hope I haven't gone on too much about all the 'stuff' I have for sale. I am just really excited to have such special, beautiful pieces.

I know I say this at every post, but I can't thank you all enough for your support and encouragement and good wishes. I truly do appreciate every single comment.

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Hello!The song lyrics of the last post ~ Bag it up by Oasis from their album Dig out your Soul, just in case you were wondering if I had lost the plot!

I wanted to tell you about last weekend we enjoyed with our bfl friends. Early morning start (2am to be precise) and by lunch time arrived at Lille, northern France for the Lille de Braderie. The largest flea market in Europe, an annual event and on taking in the wonderous site of every street in the city lined with stalls, I honestly thought I had died and gone to heaven. Street after street, lined both sides with everything French. Oh, the sights, sounds and smells..... need I say more......

A little of the booty...

Gorgeous crepe de chine bedspread...

A joyous weekend of buying french textiles. I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to speaking French. I did try though and I didn't 'S H O U T' in English ;-)

So my dear friends, I have opened anFOLKSY shop to pass on some of the beautiful French textiles and haberdashery items, I have managed to find. Here are the first items.....

Gorgeous linen tea towels...

the following need no introduction...

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I had such a surprise when posty bought me an unexpected package of delights this week. A package containing everything that I adore, from my friend whose encouragement got me started on this blogging malarkey! Lynn of gigibird you are a darling! Thank you.

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Here we have one of my silk screened birdies, with hand embroidery on vintage French linen, applied to a gorgeous Khadi handmade paper sketchbook. The paper and rough edges of these sketch books are divine, it's all in the texture!

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Hello..... just thought I had better explain that the song lyric title of this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the content. I just like the words and I say them often inside my head, you know how some random words will repeat themselves in your mind for no particular reason! Or, is it just me????Continuing on the bird theme of recent posts, I have been really enjoying using mono printing. I think the quality of the line created by mono drawing has such a unique quality. I then used the image and silk screen printed it onto calico and made this purse, with hand embroidery and buttons. It's a sweet little thing, just sits nicely in the hand.

Reverse has a little Liberty Tana Lawn and silk piccy of a bird, finished with a button.

Inside more Liberty loveliness.

I mono printed the design directly onto this lovely old letter and then added Liberty pieces, embroidery and vintage buttons.

Another design silk screen printed onto cotton and made into a lavender sachet.